The Pillow
by SamKo
Summary: Gray needs to make sure he keeps his doors and windows locked if he's going to carry his body pillow around the apartment. T for language and moderate adult themes.


It's been years since I've written fanfiction, so it means a lot to me that you're checking this out! This is my first attempt at writing anything Fairy Tail, but most likely not my last, as it consumes my life when I'm not working or at school!

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"Oi, Gray!"

"Did you already forget what I told you about busting into my place, or did your brain finally burn to an ashy crisp?"

Natsu, having just crawled through Gray's window, was about to counter Gray's insult, but his pointer finger fell limp to what got his attention next: a body pillow of Juvia sitting on the couch. Gray's eyes followed Natsu's stare to the couch, and Gray was mentally unprepared to handle this potential situation. '_How the fuck do I explain this?'_ But, little did he know, he wouldn't have to explain it; he'd have to build a lie off of Natsu's upcoming misunderstanding.

"Juvia turned into a pillow?!" Natsu screamed, bringing his hands to the sides of his head, his face quickly paling, "Why haven't you told anyone?! Why haven't you brought her to the guild yet? She needs help!"

Gray was stunned. Natsu was dense, but every day was always a learning experience as to just how dense he actually was. And now, it was giving Gray the opportunity to gain some experience with improvisation.

"Uh, yeah, she got caught in the crossfire of some really weird magic on the last mission we went on together…"

Natsu, in a flash, was gone from where he was and was standing by the couch, the Juvia body pillow now in his arms. "How are you so calm, Gray?! She needs the guild's help! We need to get her there right away!"

'_Shit, no we don't,'_ Gray thought, but he was still struggling to find a way to prevent that from happening. He was used to having to stay on his toes when it came to Natsu's antics, but this was starting to get stickier in a matter of seconds. Why did he even bring the pillow out of the bedroom? Why did he have to drowsily carry it out to the living room like a child would with a stuffed teddy bear?

"No, Natsu…" Gray started, haphazardly reaching for the pillow. '_Shit shit shit_,' he needed to come up with something quick, or things were going to get awful, fast. "She's…too shy…" Gray, putting his head down, hoping to Mavis that this would work, and slowing his speech so that he could choose his words carefully, "She doesn't want the guild to know because she's embarrassed that this even happened."

Natsu blinked, and did what Gray prayed was processing what was just said. But instead, Natsu gripped the pillow tighter, "Juvia doesn't need to be embarrassed! We're her nakama! We're her family! We need to help her when she's in trouble!"

_Shit, shit, shit_. At this rate, Gray was getting close to his wits end. The Juvia body pillow was going to end up at the guild and there was no good way to explain things when that happened. The embarrassment and insults were all flashing through his mind. It was bad enough that he was called an exhibitionist and a pervert all of the time for losing his clothes. Throw a body pillow of a guildmate into the mix and well…Gray might take a vacation to the snowy mountaintops to hide for a week or two.

"Uh…no!" Gray spattered quickly, and internally panicked, though that internal panic was beginning to leak into outward panic, his shirt now gone and it was no where to be seen, "She…needs to be kept in secret! Yeah…the…magic binding her and keeping her as a pillow gets stronger with the more people who have seen her in pillow form! That's why she needs to be kept in secret while I find a way to change her back! That's…yeah, that's why I was so upset when you saw her, the spell has become stronger that is keeping her as a pillow!"

Natsu squinted at Gray with his mouth half open, then, without missing a beat, opened Gray's coat closet, threw the body pillow in, and slammed the door shut. With his hands still on the door, he yelled at it, saying, "Juvia! If you can hear me, I'm so sorry, Juvia! I didn't realize I was just making the situation worse! I'll leave and Gray is going to find a way to change you back!"

It was then that Happy flew into the window, who must have been distracted by something that he came in tardy after Natsu. "Woah, you two aren't fighting?" He said in awe.

"Happy!" Natsu said urgently, briskly turning toward the flying cat and throwing an open hand down beside himself. "Juvia turned into a pillow! But we can't tell anyone or it will get harder for her to change back into a human!"

Happy's eyes got wide, "WOAH, A PILLOW? I've never heard of that magic before! I bet I would make a nice fluffy pillow! Or, could you imagine a fish pillow?! Or maybe a Lucy pillow, so she's still around but we don't have to listen to her whine all the time."

Gray brought a hand to his forehead and winced. He just needed to get them out of his apartment, and then he just had to come up with some bullshit solution that brought Juvia back to normal, and hopefully do this with a critical component that had just then occurred to Gray – not letting Juvia ever find out about any of this.

"Uh, yeah, so guys," Gray said, looking off to the side with his arms crossed, "you guys better get back to the guild, so that I can find a cure for Juvia!" Gray worried about his acting, and hoped that he didn't sound too cheeky and fake. It didn't seem to matter, because Natsu and Happy completely ate it.

"Aye, sir!" Natsu and Happy both chimed in unison, and flew out the door together. Funny, how they could easily leave through the door, but had to make an attempted secret entrance through the window. But no matter, Gray was able to sigh in relief, for the crisis was averted for now. He opened the closet and took out the scandalous pillow, all the while blushing for putting himself in a situation where the pillow would even be spotted. Natsu and Happy hardly ever broke into his apartment anymore ever since Lucy had joined the guild, and he could confirm after today that he appreciated the peace and quiet that their lack of intrusions brought.

Meanwhile, back at the guild, there was Juvia, sitting at the bar with Gajeel, chatting with Mirajane.

Mirajane brought a hand to her chin and a smirk spread across her lips, "So Gray accepted your body pillow?"

Juvia's face was in her hands and she was bashfully tossing her head from side to side, her porcelain skin lit up like a red traffic light, "Gray-sama isn't at the guild yet; Gray-sama probably slept in this morning; Maybe Gray-sama still has the pillow in his arms right now?!"

Gajeel struck his elbow down at the bar, holding his head in his hand, and groaned. "Oi, the way you obsess over that pervert is not healthy," he said, "don't you have other hobbies yet?"

At that statement, Levy suddenly appeared next to Gajeel, "Yeah, because you express yourself in such a healthy way," she said.

"Hey," Gajeel retorted, "I express myself just fine, Shrimp! I have a healthy outlet! Speakin of which, hey, Maryjane," he said, then turning away Levy, "When's the next time we can host a concert here?"

It was then that Natsu and Happy got back to the guild, and started to make their way to the job board, when something caught Natsu's eye. There were only two blunettes that belonged to Fairy Tail, and he definitely saw two blunettes sitting at the bar. Natsu was out of earshot of their conversation, but the list of possibilities began to flip through his mind like the reels of a slot machine. Then Natsu's answer popped into place:

What happened next would make everyone in the guild stop and look to see what was going on. With fire already emerging from his ready fists, Natsu screamed, "GET BACK, THAT JUVIA IS AN IMPOSTER!"

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for chapter two!


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